Sheriff's deputies participate in ongoing training

By: JO MORELAND - Staff Writer | Thursday, August 4, 2005 10:52 PM PDT ∞

NORTH COUNTY ---- By the time a sheriff's deputy hits the streets in North County, he or she has had the same basic training as every other local officer in the San Diego region, but nothing extra is paid for by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

All rookies are sent to the San Diego Regional Law Enforcement Training Academy in San Diego, a place where they learn how to enforce the law, and seasoned officers return for more training in how to handle the latest legal twists, technology and techniques.

They also learn how to shoot, learn department policies and procedures on the use of force, and about many of the court rulings involving shootings by law enforcement. Scenarios and classes are designed to teach them when to fire in defense of themselves and others, and when not to.

The training and procedures of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department are being scrutinized as part of the investigations into three fatal, deputy-involved shootings last week and Monday in Vista.

"There's just no way to train for every conceivable event in the field," sheriff's Lt. Roy Heringer, the academy director, said Thursday.

As it is, said Heringer, the academy, which is part of Miramar College in San Diego, provides 940 hours of overall law enforcement training, considerably more than the 664 hours that the California Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) regulations require.

Deputies and officers spend at least 64 hours at the academy training with firearms, another eight hours learning how to use pepper spray and other chemical agents, and 80 hours more learning how to control people using less-than-lethal methods during arrests.

In addition, all deputies and officers are required to return for more professional training, 30 hours every two years. Heringer said that training includes firearms and defensive tactics.

Capt. Glenn Revell, the Sheriff's Department spokesman, said deputies also may attend private schools that might provide valuable training in survival on the street and response tactics for safety.

The department doesn't pay for those schools, Revell said.

"We believe meeting the POST mandate is sufficient training," the captain said.

He said the department would like to do more training, if budgets and staffing allowed.

Lt. David Mankin, spokesman for the Escondido Police Department, said his agency will pay for most schools if an officer wants to advance within the department.

Spokespeople at all the North County law enforcement agencies said that training is pretty much a continuing process now for all law enforcement officers, and that they are trained in all the types of weapons or defenses that their agencies have available for them.

The weapons vary, depending on the agency, but they can include batons, bean bag and pepper ball shotguns, Tasers, and dogs.

Officers and deputies are also encouraged to think about using less-than-lethal tools when responding to calls, have them available in advance if possible, and to stay in good physical shape so they can use them, they said.

"We train our people to think about the different things available to them," said Carlsbad Detective Lt. Bill Rowland.

Psychological response teams or negotiators are also often available to help calm scenes, and officers are trained in talking to people to calm a situation and try to keep it from getting worse, spokesmen said.

"What history has shown us (nationally) is that if we can get a supervisor there quickly and slow it (the situation) down, then the chance of an officer-involved shooting taking place has been reduced by 80 percent," said San Diego police Capt. Howard Kendall, commander of the regional academy.

Kendall said controversial officer-involved shootings in the city of San Diego prompted his agency to develop Critical Response Teams, trained to respond to reports of people who are acting in a bizarre manner or who may have mental health problems.

The Sheriff's Department doesn't have similar teams. At least one of Vista's three recent shootings appeared to involve such a person, however.

Officers often pull their weapons during suspicious, hostile or dangerous situations, the spokesmen said, but when it comes to actually pulling the trigger, it doesn't happen that often.

When it does happen, training and many other factors come into play, including who might get hurt and department policies and procedures on the use of force, said Sgt. Leonard Mata, training coordinator for the Oceanside Police Department.

Shortly after Mata joined the agency, a 16-year-old who was high on PCP and armed with a broken bottle kept coming at the officer in a store. Mata said he walked backward, gun in hand, until the teen suddenly hesitated long enough to be taken down without a shot being fired.

"It's just your judgment," Mata said. "There's so much stuff around you, so much stuff going around in your head. I was perfectly justified in shooting at that point. You think about your family, too. I wasn't thinking about civil liability. That's a human being."

Contact staff writer Jo Moreland at (760) 740-3524 or jmoreland@nctimes.com.